Mark Roland Langdale – författare

Gulliver has never travelled outside Devon. He only knows his antique emporium, filled with dusty old grandfather clocks, brass telescopes and antique globes from the 17th century among other things. Dreaming of maps that lead to national treasures, he longs to go on an adventure. Then one day, in an attempt to save Beagle, his pet Labrador, Gulliver finds himself swept away into the sea. On waking up, he discovers he has fallen back in time, into the miniature world of one of his antique globes. Suddenly, his life is turned upside down and he is mixed up in a land where giant ships in bottles are scattered across the sea and land, nothing makes sense and time no longer exists. On a quest to find The Last Bookshop in the World, his only hope of returning home, Gulliver meets a cast of colourful and charismatic characters including Old Father Time, Hans Christian Andersen, Queen Elizabeth I and Sir Francis Drake and his Golden Hind. But will he ever find this elusive shop, and does he in fact want to go back to his old life? The (Phantasmagorical) Astrarium Compendium is a fantastical tale set in the parallel world of Old Devon. Combining poetic prose with humour, action and a good helping of nonsense, Mark Roland Langdale’s new novel will appeal to fans of science fiction and fantasy stories like Doctor Who and Alice in Wonderland.

Mark Roland Langdale’s third children’s book is a wacky and wonderful read that debunks the stigma of dyslexia. Hester, Huckleberry and the Sugar House Hauntings is a coming of age tale between Hester and Huckleberry who encounter a haunted sugar house, a haunted steamboat named the grey lady (who, when she puts her mind to it, can fly!), a flying ice cream bicycle cart, and a whole host of dark and magical creatures. Having suffered with dyslexia his whole life, Mark’s stories also share an important message about encouraging a love of reading and writing in those who also experience difficulty with words. His previous book Penny Farthing and the Man in the Moon also confronted issues surrounding autism – a common theme as Mark delves into real life issues that are affecting young children today. Full of wildly colourful illustrations, Mark’s stories encapsulate the true essence of a joyful children’s book that appeal to children age 8 and over. With more magic and mystery than you can shake a stick at, this book is a truly eye-opening and enjoyable read.

An entertaining book full of humour, science and historyChildren can learn in a fun way about history with more time traveller's than you can throw a Flux-capacitor at!The story starts in a gentlemen’s club in London in 2061 and follows the main character, Benjamin Digby Esq.He relives his days as a ‘quantum’ scientist at the Crick institute in London in 2021 by telling his circle of friends his extraordinary tale about travelling in time. He travels back to the Crystal Palace Exhibition in 1851 Victorian England where he meets Isambard Kingdom Brunel.Benjamin’s aim is to pick up inventors and scientists for his Time Travellers’ Club: Einstein, Da Vinci, Brunel. He gets more than he bargained for when he gets chased through time and space and encounters Leonardo Da Vinci and Niccolo Machiavelli. There are more twists and turns in this than time itself – expect the unexpected! The Time Travellers Club is Mark’s fourth Matador children’s book, and will appeal to science fiction lovers and fans of his former books.Praise for Mark’s former book, The (Phantasmagorical) Astrarium Compendium:“The story is obviously written by an author who loves writing and who enjoys bringing the imaginary world of historical fantasy to life.” – Historical Novel Society

A highly imaginative fantasy book for children and young adults.Written in the authors’ unmistakable style, the book transports readers to a different world.The narrative surrounds the theme of time and follows people who live inside a clock.The Clock People is a wondrous work of mechanical engineering and imagineering that runs both like clockwork and anti-clockwork! The story follows the lives of people who live and work inside an antique golden fob watch to the sound of clicking, ticking, tocking, whirling and whirring.The Clock People lost their home, downsizing to another property in Clock Town. But this is just half of the story, the other half is lost in time, waiting to be discovered...The Clock People is Mark Roland Langdale’s fifth Matador children’s book, and will appeal to science fiction and fantasy lovers along with fans of his former books.“What is time? Scientists who believe in quantum wonder tales would have you believe it does not exist, that it is simply an illusion a clever conjuring trick and nothing more...”

Meet Vincent: a young boy from Holland with big dreams. Fortuneless and out of favour with just about everybody, Vincent discovers that he can escape if he only uses his powerful imagination. Sometimes his mind would wander so far, Vincent got lost. Not only did he get lost in the palette of his imagination, he would wander the halls of his Uncle’s art gallery travelling from one painting to another as if traversing the world. And when he discovers his own talent for painting, Vincent opens the door to a wonderful and magical world of art.From his bedroom window, Vincent can see the sky, framed as if in a large canvas. He dreams of painting the night. But can he capture Mother Nature’s magnificent muse?Artists of the world unite and freeVincent, the boy who painted the night.

Time Transfer is an enchanting story about football– a game which lost its magic, and follows the trials and tribulations of Manchester United and Accrington Stanley FC.It’s hard to pinpoint the exact date the magic appeared in the FA Cup. Perhaps it was there from the beginning when the very first ball was kicked, or perhaps it first appeared in 1923 – the year the final was first played at Wembley, known then as the Empire Stadium. Just as the Premier and Champions Leagues were battling it out for the top spot, the magic disappeared, much to the fans disappointment.Can the Football Association bring the magic back to the cup, or will they be powerless to act to restore the magic, like old wizards who no longer possess the magic touch?

On a very usual day, on a very usual school trip to Hampton Court Maze, there is a very unusually named girl called Victoriana Elizabeth Alice Royal. While her name is unusual, Victoriana herself always feels very boring indeed - invisible to all. She often dreams of when she can be like the History Girls on TV and make history come alive for everyone, but for now she's stuck at school. At least she can concentrate on history on this school trip and learn new facts as she wanders the maze. But little does Victoriana know that history will come alive for her today in a way it never has before...Following the proverbial white rabbit down the rabbit hole by getting lost in the Maze with her friends, Victoriana is soon indeed lost in a history Wonderland - meeting none other than Princess Victoria, eventually to be queen of England, and under the thrall of the Dream King. But as she tumbles into adventure after adventure, learning AMAZING facts you won't find in the history books, a vague worry begins to itch at the back of her mind. She is after all keen on history, but does she really want to be stuck in the past forever?

Jag, short for Jaguar, was orphaned when her environmentalist parents died in the jungle saving animals’ lives. Although she was put into a care home, she ran away two years to live on the streets where she was adopted into a street gang who have now become her family. Danny, the trickster and street magician and Tiger, whose animal instincts run close to the surface, and a few others are all animal activists at heart. Although they go one night to an animal sanctuary in the country to tag the walls with graffiti, Jag gets caught in an enclosure. However, it ends up for the best as the keeper takes a shine to her and offers a part time job when she hears Jag’s affinity with the Jaguar spirit.With Jag working at the sanctuary, her gang start spending more time there to see the great Cat Man Do perform his animal magic – until one day when a tiger is let out its cage. And that is only the beginning as a villainous Cat Man begins to stalk the streets with two pet panthers out for blood, seemingly appearing and disappearing at will. With newspapers reporting maulings and deaths and Sergeant Dickins not sure what’s going on, the kids are intrigued by the reports. After witnessing an attack, the kids get sucked into this mysterious Cat Man’s idea of a theatrical villain performance – but even if they have animal instincts and spirits with them and even if the big cats are swaying to their side, should they run before they too turn prey?

What do you do if the family business is magic and you’re all fingers and thumbs? If your family are magicians and builders of tricks and illusions for other magicians and you can’t even pull a rabbit from a hat, do you turn your back on magic and walk away as far away from Abracadabra Street as you can…or do you try and overcome the hand you’re dealt?This is the question on Benjamin Blackstone’s mind. He has hope, however, in the form of a book his great grandfather bought about magic, a Victorian popup book of a street on which a long line of magic shops sat. This is called Abracadabra Street. The book is said to be truly magical in some way – and young Benjamin wants to get his hands on it. But this book is no toy to be played with which Benjamin soon finds out as he discovers the book after a long search locked in a trunk and discovers a living, breathing magical street! And that’s before a mysterious magician appears seemingly from inside the book.Benjamin knows it must be all smoke and mirrors, but he finds his own magic unlocked inside his head as he becomes obsessed to know how the book works and where the magician is really coming from. Because real magic isn’t real…right?

In a lovely manor house in West Sussex, living with her parents and grandparents, exists a girl named Tiger. Tiger is autistic and thinks differently to everyone else and didn’t in fact speak until she was seven, but she is a talented painter and adores tigers (and in fact all animals). Although the manor house is her entire world, her imagination opens everything up so she can even believe she can see the Taj Mahal from her attic bedroom window. Her parents love her – even though they wish she might draw on paper rather than the walls! – but even so, Tiger spends a lot of her days alone in the house and in the garden. And it’s there where Tiger’s world will change forever…One night, she paints a raggedy-looking tiger onto an old red brick garden wall. Under the blue moon, the tiger comes shockingly to life. Immediately bonded, Tiger knows in her soul she has found her first friend and willingly abandons her normal life for an adventure of the wild kind!

What would you do if you lost yourself in another world? Orphan Poe Black finds himself lost in a forest inside an attic fighting both real and imaginary entities from the spirit world. Here he meets a young girl, named Sorrow, who he shares a connection with. Two is better than one and they forge ahead together, aware of the danger that creeps ever closer toward them.Set in Finland, just after the covid pandemic, this dark and supernatural, fairy tale follows Poe Black as he manoeuvres through three entirely different worlds, the real world, a parallel world and the spirit world. Can Poe and Sorrow defeat the dark and mysterious entity and make their way back to the so called real world or will they be stuck in the other realms for all eternity?

Will is a young boy who loves museums, ancient artifacts and memorabilia, especially memorabilia of a magical nature. He buys a wardrobe at auction on behalf of his father, who says that it belonged to an old-time magician. Will discovers the the wardrobe is a time machine, a portal to another world, an Aladdin’s Cave, a magician’s trunk, a theatre and much more besides. Will travels in time using the wardrobe or is it a portal to another universe – a ‘wardrobe of wonders’ in another time. There then follow an adventure in time, magic and wonders of both the ancient world and the solar system.

Three children find themselves stuck in a rabbit like tunnel when their Anderson shelter is hit by a bomb during an air raid in World War 2 London. They end up in a garden where they enter an overgrown maze under a magical full moon. Here their fantastical adventure begins as they meet many weird and wonderful characters, and a girl named Snow who they hope to help return to the snowy Kingdom of Nocturnia.The children are up against the White Witch and her advisor, the Nightmare Catcher and the Ice Wizards, who want to stop Snow and her allies from returning to Nocturnia. Can the children help Snow take on her role as Queen and rule Nocturnia once again?Nocturnia: The Tiger, the White Witch and a Girl Named Snow is a captivating and magical story filled with unexpected twists and turns!

Holly Wild lives in a world of his own. He has his own internal jukebox inside his head. He is an orphan after his parents died in a car crash in Texas, while visiting the home of Buddy Holly. When they died Holly’s parents left him a Diner in Hammersmith, but it is very run-down, and he is struggling to keep the business afloat. Luckily Holly has the help of some weird and wonderful Earth Angels, some Troubadours from the past and most importantly a jukebox time machine. With it Holly can go back in time and meet his rock and roll heroes such as Billy Fury, Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran. Holly goes on a musical magical mystery tour of time and space which follows and seems strangely connected to the famous Magical Mystery Tour of the Beatles. Holly Wild has AS Aspergers Syndrome which the author was also diagnosed with as a child.

In the future, the world is in peril. Global warming has taken its toll, deforestation has wiped out too many forests and there’s worse yet to come. Earth is on its last legs, and the Cloud Watchers of old have disappeared into legacy. Deep in the forest, two environmentally conscious runaways live off grid to do their bit to save the planet. Up in the clouds, the floating airship The Cloud Lab watches over the Earth as best they can. A steamship captain, an old Cloud Watcher, workers in Kew Gardens, and more all watch and wonder what will be the final straw that tips the Earth into chaos.When the Anti-Environmental League forms, an unexpected revolt sets events into motion that cannot be undone. Difficult challenges arise that might just be the planet’s ultimate downfall – unless the world’s population can be roused to save itself.